Converting string to array in LUA! please help :(

[d20hero]

I'm wondering if there is a way to treat a string in lua like an array to access each element of the string character by character and how to initialize the array to do so. My limited understanding is that a table is essentially an array but I can't find the string library to see how lua treats the member functions so I can handle it myself. Trying to return a value such as Name(unit) back to a variable to hold the string then access each character so that I can use string.len() to see if its over the amount and then use a loop to only display so many characters in that string. Is there even a function made for this already? TY to anyone who can help.

[Akryn]

newString = string:sub(1, n)

http://www.lua.org/pil/index.html#20

[Xus]

string.sub (s, i [, j]) Returns the substring of s that starts at i and continues until j; i and j can be negative. If j is absent, then it is assumed to be equal to -1 (which is the same as the string length). In particular, the call string.sub(s,1,j) returns a prefix of s with length j, and string.sub(s, -i) returns a suffix of s with length i.

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/ is your friend

[d20hero]

Cool but how to i initialize the array with a function call? Or are you suggesting I don't and just use that to split the string open?

[d20hero]

Nvm i figured it out. I don't like the notation they show to use it but the sub string function is so freaking powerful and easy to use woot ty guys.

local namespace = Name(unit)
if string.len(namespace) > 25 then
return '%s... ', string.sub (namespace, 1 , 24)
else

[haste]

You might want to read some in this thread as well. string.sub() isn't multi-byte aware.

[acapela]

Originally Posted by haste You might want to read some in this thread as well. string.sub() isn't multi-byte aware.

yeah, for locale portability, you have to be careful with this.

FYI, i found some code in the implementation of LibDogTags-3.0's "Truncate" tag, that walks multi-byte strings and slices them up into multi-byte characters (in the form of substrings). this is now part of Aloft's "Truncate" tag implementation (courtesy of ckknight, shefki, etc).

there are probably other things (search the web?) that can provide examples.